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NYC Announces New Vaccine Mandate for Cops, Firefighters, City Workers + More
NYC Announces New Vaccine Mandate for Cops, Firefighters, City Workers
New York City will require its entire municipal workforce to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be placed on unpaid leave, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, giving an ultimatum to public employees, including police officers and firefighters who have refused the shots and ensuring a fight with some unions representing them.
The Democrat gave approximately 46,000 unvaccinated city employees until Nov. 1 to get their first vaccine dose, and he offered an incentive: City workers who a shot by Oct. 29 at a city-run vaccination site will get an extra $500 in their paycheck.
New York City’s largest police union, the Police Benevolent Association, said getting vaccinated is a “personal medical decision” officers should make in consultation with their doctors.
Leaked Audio: DOJ Official Doesn’t Think Americans ‘Sincere’ Over Religious Exemptions
A Biden Justice Department attorney was caught on tape dismissing the sincerity of Americans claiming religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to Lederman, there are “cases, for instance in the New York case that’s currently going on against the State of New York, the Thomas More Society is representing a bunch of doctors and nurses who claim that they would sin gravely in cooperation with the evil of abortion. How would they be doing so?
The claim is that all three of the current vaccines, either have fetal cells that were obtained by abortions in the vaccine itself, or in the case of Pfizer and Moderna that those vaccines were tested using fetal cells that had been aborted, and even the connection to the previous testing, makes them cooperative with evil in a way that their religion prohibits.”
Oregon Releases Names, Vaccination Status of 40,000 Individual Employees by ‘Mistake’: Report
The individual names and vaccination statuses of some 40,000 Oregon state employees were mistakenly released to two newspapers, which a labor union is saying breaches an agreement reached with the state last month assuring that the private medical information would remain confidential, according to a report.
The privacy breach reportedly happened Monday, the same day as Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadline for all state employees. Since the governor issued the order in August, The Oregonian/Oregon Live has requested daily information from Brown’s administration on vaccination rates and vaccine exemption rates for each executive branch agency the governor oversees.
1,887 WA Workers Fired, Leave Jobs Due to Vaccine Mandate
More than 1,800 Washington state workers have been fired, resigned or retired due to the state’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, according to data released Tuesday.
Monday was the deadline for thousands of workers in Washington to prove they’ve been fully vaccinated as a condition of their continued employment.
The mandate — issued by Gov. Jay Inslee in August — applies to most state workers, long-term care employees, and teachers and staff at the state’s schools, including the state’s colleges and universities. The only opt-out was a medical or religious exemption, though the exemption only ensured continued employment if a job accommodation could be made.
U.S. Workers Face Job Losses as COVID Vaccine Mandates Kick In
Thousands of unvaccinated workers across the United States are facing potential job losses as a growing number of states, cities and private companies start to enforce mandates for inoculation against COVID-19.
In the latest high-profile example, Washington State University (WSU) fired its head football coach and four of his assistants on Monday for failing to comply with the state’s vaccine requirement. The coach, Nick Rolovich, had applied for a religious exemption from the mandate earlier this month.
Thousands of police officers and firefighters in cities like Chicago and Baltimore are also at risk of losing their jobs in the coming days under mandates that require them to report their vaccination status or submit to regular coronavirus testing.
Federal Appeals Court Won’t Stop Health Worker COVID Mandate
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stop the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for Maine healthcare workers, setting the stage for another 11th-hour appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A three-judge panel rejected a request for a preliminary injunction, saying opponents of the mandate were unlikely to succeed. The state is due to begin enforcing the mandate on Oct. 29.
The decision was dated Tuesday, the same day the U.S. Supreme Court declined an emergency request to intervene. But the Supreme Court left open the door for another appeal.
A Trooper Defying His State’s Vaccine Mandate Uses His Final Dispatch to Tell Off the Governor
The Washington Post via MSN reported:
In a parting message broadcast across the agency’s dispatch system, he announced that he was “being asked to leave because I am dirty,” referring to his defiance of the state’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for government employees. The 22-year veteran thanked his colleagues — and offered some choice words for the governor.
LaMay’s Friday sign-off, which was shared tens of thousands of times on social media, came as several law enforcement officers and other first responders across the United States resisted coronavirus vaccination and fought mandates.
The U.S. States Where COVID Vaccine Mandates Are Banned and Allowed
Vaccine mandates continue to be a topic of contention in the U.S. after Texas governor Greg Abbott this week failed to pass a new bill into legislature that would have banned employers from mandating such measures.
So vaccine mandates are still effectively banned in Texas, despite the legislature failing to pass. Complications such as this make it difficult to follow which states have actually banned vaccine mandates, which have simply restricted them, and to what extent.
The U.S. National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), which tracks vaccine mandates across the country, provides information on what sort of mandate bans are in place between states.
Insight: The Great New Normal Purge
So, the Great New Normal Purge has begun … right on cue, right by the numbers.
As we “paranoid conspiracy theorists” have been warning would happen for the past 18 months, people who refuse to convert to the new official ideology are now being segregated, stripped of their jobs, banned from attending schools, denied medical treatment, and otherwise persecuted.
Relentless official propaganda demonizing “the Unvaccinated” is being pumped out by the corporate and state media, government leaders, health officials, and shrieking fanatics on social media. “The Unvaccinated” are the new official “Untermenschen,” an underclass of subhuman “others” the New Normal masses are being conditioned to hate.
Businesses Nervously Await Fine Print of Vax-or-Test Rule
More than six weeks after promising a new vaccination-or-testing rule covering the millions of Americans at companies with 100 or more workers, President Joe Biden’s most aggressive move yet to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is almost ready to see the light of day.
Unlike healthcare providers or federal employees, who may not have a testing alternative to vaccination, private sector workers won’t necessarily face termination if they don’t get vaccinated. But some businesses may choose to impose their own more stringent vaccination mandate, and it’s possible that businesses may be allowed to pass on the cost of weekly COVID-19 testing to their unvaccinated employees.
The AI Oracle of Delphi Uses the Wisdom of Reddit to Offer Dubious Moral Advice
Got a moral quandary you don’t know how to solve? Fancy making it worse? Why not turn to the wisdom of artificial intelligence, aka Ask Delphi: an intriguing research project from the Allen Institute for AI that offers answers to ethical dilemmas while demonstrating in wonderfully clear terms why we shouldn’t trust software with questions of morality.
Ultimately, Ask Delphi is an experiment, but it’s one that reveals the ambitions of many in the AI community: to elevate machine learning systems into positions of moral authority. Is that a good idea?
Thousands of Teachers, Students Walk Out of School in Protest of Vaccine Mandates + More
Walkout 2021: Teachers, Students Walk Out of School in Protest of Vaccine Mandates
Thousands of parents, students and teachers walked out of school and onto the California State Capitol lawn in Sacramento, all in protest of the state vaccine mandate.
A crowd of about two thousand from all across the state converged on the capitol Monday afternoon.
Southwest Drops Plan to Put Unvaccinated Staff on Unpaid Leave Starting in December
Southwest Airlines has scrapped a plan to put unvaccinated employees who have applied for but haven’t received a religious or medical exemption on unpaid leave starting by a federal deadline in December.
The company is giving employees until Nov. 24 to finish their vaccinations or apply for an exemption. It will continue paying them while the company reviews their requests, and said it will allow those who are rejected to continue working “as we coordinate with them on meeting the requirements (vaccine or valid accommodation).”
Businesses Face $700,000 Fine for Not Forcing Shots On Employees
Buried in the massive $3.5 trillion “reconciliation” bill is an unconstitutional vaccine enforcement mechanism that threatens to bankrupt businesses unless they force their employees to get a COVID-19 injection. If the measure is enacted into law, even employers that respect their employees’ rights to health freedom and informed consent would be left with an impossible decision — mandate COVID-19 jabs or essentially go out of business due to unbearable fines.
The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is to be in charge of enforcing the rule, which will affect more than 80 million U.S. workers.1 OSHA would also be able to enforce fines of up to $13,600 per violation of the rules — but the new measure tucked into the reconciliation bill raises the fines for noncompliance astronomically.
More Than a Third of Chicago Police Officers Defy City Vaccine Mandate
About 4,500 Chicago police officers didn’t report their vaccination status by October 15 as mandated by the city, officials said Monday.
That means roughly 35 percent of the city’s 12,770 officers could be placed on no-pay status in the foreseeable future.
The city required employees to be either vaccinated or test two times a week by October 15, and then report their status by that same deadline. Those who did not report their status risk being put on unpaid leave.
Washington State Head Football Coach Ousted After Refusing COVID Vaccine
Washington State University’s head football coach, Nick Rolovich, and four assistant coaches are losing their jobs because of not complying with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the university’s athletics department said Monday.
In July, Rolovich said in a post on social media that he “elected not to receive a COVID-19 vaccine for reasons which will remain private.”
“While I have made my own decision,” Rolovich said then, “I respect that every individual — including our coaches, staff and student-athletes — can make his or her own decision regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Treating Tech Giants as Nation-States
Tech companies are creating not just the products of the future, but also the future’s infrastructure and rules, global analyst Ian Bremmer writes in an article for Foreign Affairs.
Why it matters: That means “it is time to start thinking of the biggest technology companies as similar to states,” Bremmer argues.
These companies exercise a form of sovereignty over a rapidly expanding realm that extends beyond the reach of regulators: digital space,” he writes.
Swift and Thorough White House Review of Vaccine Mandate Is Critical
Last week, it was reported that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sent its regulation requiring employers with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccines for their workers to the White House for final review.
First, and most famously, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) will review the agency’s analysis of the underlying economic consequences of the regulation.
The vaccine mandate is classified as an “economically significant” regulation meaning that it will have an impact on the economy of more than $100 million, and OSHA is therefore required to estimate the costs and benefits of the regulation.
Feds Start Bio-Attack Readiness Test With Non-Toxic Gas Release in NYC Parks, Subways
The MTA says the Department of Homeland Security working alongside a team of researchers and city agencies will deploy a non-toxic gas on five separate days between Oct. 18 and 29 at about 120 locations across the city, including transit.
Most of the locations will be above ground, including some parks. A number of below-ground subway stations will also be included, though details on which ones weren’t known.
“The goal of these tests is to deliver actionable information to emergency preparedness planning authorities for potential wide-area release of dangerous chemicals or biological materials,” DHS Senior Official Kathryn Coulter Mitchell said in a statement.
NJ Hospital System Fires 118 Employees for Not Getting COVID Vaccine
One of New Jersey’s largest health systems has fired over 100 of its employees who refused to comply with its vaccination policy, the hospital network announced.
RWJBarnabas Health, which employs over 35,000 people in dozens of health facilities in the Garden State, axed 118 of its employees for refusing to get the jabs it says 99.7% of its employees received by the Oct. 15 deadline.
The Facebook Trap
Harvard Business Review reported:
Depending on who you ask, Facebook’s biggest problem might be almost anything. Critics have argued that it’s violating individual privacy or bullying small companies as a monopoly, damaging teens’ mental health or inciting violent insurrections — the list of possibilities goes on (and on).
But varied as these troubles may seem, they are actually all facets of one big, fundamental problem that is staring all of us — policymakers, general public, and Facebook’s own employees — right in the face.
Federal Judge Denies Last-Minute Bid to Block Oregon Vaccine Mandate
The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported:
A federal judge on Monday denied a last-minute bid by 42 state employees, healthcare providers and school staff to temporarily halt the state’s vaccination mandate.
U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon rejected their motion for a temporary restraining order, marking the first federal judge’s ruling after at least three state court decisions thwarted similar efforts to block the effort by Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority to force certain workers to get the vaccines or risk losing their jobs.
At least 10 vaccine mandate challenges have been filed in state and federal court since September.
Florida Student Torches Colleges’ ‘Draconian’ COVID Policies, Warns ‘Surveillance State Is Taking Root’
Campus Reform reporter Ophelie Jacobson sounded the alarm on COVID policies on college campuses around the nation, warning “the surveillance state is taking root.”
Jacobson appeared on “Fox & Friends First” on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing trend, reiterating the COVID-related policies are simply about control as opposed to safety.
“This is just the perfect example of how these policies have nothing to do with safety and everything to do with surveillance and control,” the University of Florida student explained.
Religious Exemptions Threaten to Undermine U.S. COVID Vaccine Mandates
This month, California became the first state to require Covid-19 vaccines for all schoolchildren but the provision came with a loophole: students will be granted religious exemptions.
California, which currently has the lowest coronavirus case rate in the US, has been issuing a series of sweeping mandates, requiring that healthcare workers, state employees, care workers and schoolteachers staff all get the vaccine. But in each case, Californians are able to ask for personal belief exemptions – and they are doing so in droves.
Pentagon Hit With Massive Class Action Lawsuit Over Vaccine Mandates + More
Pentagon Hit With Massive Class Action Lawsuit Over Vaccine Mandates
Service members from all five branches of the U.S. military, federal employees, and federal civilian contractors have joined in a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Defense over its COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The 24 plaintiffs “face a deadline under the Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate to receive a COVID-19 vaccine that violates their sincerely held religious beliefs, and have been refused any religious exemption or accommodation,” according to Liberty Counsel, the Christian legal firm that filed the lawsuit.
The lawsuit (pdf), filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, lists President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as defendants.
California School Walkout as Thousands of Parents Defy Child Vaccine Mandate
Thousands of children will not be in school on Monday as parents protest California Governor Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement for students, by taking their kids to the state capitol to protest.
In October, Newsom’s Office announced that California would be the first state in the U.S. to require school students to be vaccinated following the full FDA approval of the COVID-19 vaccine for grades 7 to 12 and K-6. California also was the first state to implement school mask and staff vaccination mandates.
Texas Supreme Court Puts San Antonio School District’s Vaccine Mandate on Hold
The Texas Supreme Court halted a San Antonio school district’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for teachers and school employees Thursday — hours before the requirement was supposed to take effect.
Under the mandate, all employees of San Antonio Independent School District were supposed to get vaccinated against the virus by Friday — directly challenging Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Then-Superintendent Pedro Martinez enacted the rule in August, drawing lawsuits from Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Miami Private School to Require Students Getting COVID Vaccine to Stay Home for 30 Days After Each Dose
A Miami school that made headlines for saying it would penalize teachers who got the COVID-19 vaccine is now requiring students who get vaccinated to remain home for 30 days after each dose.
Parents of students at the Centner Academy recently received a letter from its Chief Operating Officer that read in part, “…if you are considering the vaccine for your Centner Academy student(s), we ask that you hold off until the Summer when there will be time for the potential transmission or shedding onto others to decrease.”
Southwest Pilots’ Union Asks Court to Delay Vaccine Mandate
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) has asked a federal court in Texas for a temporary restraining order to prevent the airline from implementing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees on Nov. 24.
SWAPA, which represents approximately 9,000 Southwest Airlines pilots, filed a lawsuit on Aug. 30, claiming that Southwest has made unilateral changes that violate the “status quo” provision of the the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which governs relations between airlines and unions, by not maintaining terms of an existing contract during negotiations.
Judge Temporarily Blocks Vaccine Mandate Requirement for California Prison Workers
Kern County Judge Bernard Barmann issued a temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement of the mandate as the court considers a preliminary injunction request.
The vaccine mandate was scheduled to take effect Friday. It will continue to apply to other employees who work in state prisons with health care facilities.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) has opposed vaccine mandates across the state. The union represents about 28,000 officers statewide.
Amazon May Have Lied to Congress, Five U.S. Lawmakers Say
Five members of the U.S. House Judiciary committee wrote to Amazon.com Inc.’s chief executive Sunday, and accused the company’s top executives, including founder Jeff Bezos, of either misleading Congress or possibly lying to it about Amazon‘s business practices.
The letter also states that the committee is considering “whether a referral of this matter to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation is appropriate.”
Addressed to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, the letter followed a Reuters investigation last week that showed that the company had conducted a systematic campaign of copying products and rigging search results in India to boost sales of its own brands — practices Amazon has denied engaging in.
Maine’s COVID Mandate Appealed to U.S. Supreme Court
Opponents of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in Maine filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after being dealt another legal defeat on Friday.
The appeal was filed hours after the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston denied a request to stop the mandate from going into effect.
The Supreme Court previously has rejected challenges of vaccine requirements for New York City teachers and Indiana University staff and students.
Facebook Says It’s Hiring 10,000 People in Europe to Help Build Mark Zuckerberg’s ‘Metaverse’
Facebook plans to create 10,000 jobs across the European Union (EU) over the next five years in pursuit of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of a “metaverse,” the company announced in a press release Monday.
Zuckerberg first told The Verge in July that he wants Facebook to eventually become a “metaverse company.” The word metaverse refers to a theoretical virtual space where people can access the internet, for example using virtual-reality or augmented-reality headsets.
ESPN Reporter Allison Williams Leaving Network Over COVID Vaccine Mandate
Longtime ESPN college football and basketball reporter Allison Williams said over the weekend that she will be leaving the network over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
“I have been denied my request for accommodation” to not get the vaccine, Williams, 37, said in a video posted Friday to Instagram. “Effective next week I will be separated from the company.”
The Days of U.S. Tech Companies Fighting Back Against Authoritarian Regimes Are Long Gone
The Washington Post via MSN reported:
Last week, the makers of a globally popular Koran app said Apple had kicked them off its app store in China. The app is used by millions of Muslims around the world to study the Koran and track prayer times. Though Islam is legal in China, the government has for years been attempting to limit the activities of those living in the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang, taking steps like arresting imams and detaining hundreds of thousands of people in camps where they are sometimes tortured.
A spokesperson for Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment, but the company directed the BBC to its human rights statement, which includes the line: “We’re required to comply with local laws, and at times there are complex issues about which we may disagree with governments.”
Apple’s deference to the Chinese regime is well-documented. China is where nearly all of the company’s smartphones are made — and where 1 in 5 of them are sold, netting Apple more than $40 billion a year in revenue.
Chicago Police Department Says Officers Who Don’t Adhere to Vaccination Policy Could Be Fired
Chicago police officers could be fired for not complying with the city’s vaccination policy, according to a memo obtained by CNN.
The memo states any civilian or sworn employee who disobeys a direct order to comply with the city’s vaccination policy “will become the subject of a disciplinary investigation that could result in a penalty up to and including separation from the Chicago Police Department. Furthermore, sworn members who retire while under disciplinary investigations may be denied retirement credentials.”
A separate memo issued Saturday informed officers their elective time off would be restricted.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ditches ‘Divisive’ COVID Vaccine Mandate + More
Delta Air Lines CEO Ditches ‘Divisive’ COVID Vaccine Mandate; Marks 90% Employee Vaccination Rate
Delta Air Lines is the only U.S. carrier to hold off on enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate for employees and CEO Ed Bastian reported that it’s been an effective tactic for vaccination rates and compliance.
The Delta head revealed on “The Claman Countdown” that the company has reached a more than 90% vaccination rate and expects it to rise another 5% within the next month without a mandate in place.
Bastian acknowledged that there will need to be religious and medical accommodations made for those who wish to remain unvaccinated while avoiding having to threaten employment status.
UC Berkeley Mandates Both Flu and COVID Vaccines
University of California, Berkeley has announced a new requirement for immunization.
School officials have issued an executive order requiring everyone in the UC system to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu by November 19th. This includes students, faculty and staff.
Those that apply for a medical or religious exemption must wear masks until the end of the flu season.
Hochul, James File Appeal Over COVID Vaccine Religious Exemption for Healthcare Workers Ruling
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and the New York State Department of Health have filed an appeal over the federal judge ruling that allows a COVID-19 vaccine religious exemption for healthcare workers.
The federal judge ruled that New York must continue to allow healthcare workers to seek exemptions from a statewide vaccine mandate on religious grounds as a lawsuit challenging the requirement proceeds.
Dozens of U.S. Nuclear Lab Workers Sue Over Vaccine Mandate
Workers at one of the nation’s premier nuclear weapons laboratories face a deadline Friday — be vaccinated or prepare to be fired.
A total of 114 workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory — the birthplace of the atomic bomb — are suing over the mandate, saying exemptions have been unduly denied and their constitutional rights are being violated by Triad National Security LLC, the contractor that runs the lab for the U.S. Department of Energy.
It will be up to a state district judge whether to grant an injunction to prevent employees from being fired while the merits of the case are decided. A hearing was underway Thursday.
U.S. Navy Set to Boot Sailors Who Refuse COVID Vaccine
The U.S. Navy announced Thursday that it is preparing to discharge sailors who refuse vaccination for COVID-19 as mandated by the Pentagon, and the service members who get the boot over their noncompliance run the risk of losing some veterans benefits.
The Navy sent out a press release noting that Nov. 14 is the deadline for active-duty sailors to get either their second shot of a two-dose vaccine or the single shot of a one-dose vaccine. Reservists have until Dec. 14.
Deadline for Chicago’s Employee Vaccine Mandate Is Friday. Here’s What to Know.
The deadline for Chicago’s employee vaccine mandate is Friday, raising concerns for some leaders as a standoff between the city and some first responders reaches a pivotal point.
Under the city’s rules, city employees who aren’t vaccinated by Friday have to get tested twice a week on their own time and expense until the end of the year, when they will be required to be vaccinated. Any employee not complying with those requirements could face disciplinary action, including and up to termination.
The U.S. Has Set a Date to Reopen Its Borders to Vaccinated Foreign Visitors
The White House is expected to announce Friday that the U.S. is reopening its land and air borders to vaccinated foreign nationals on November 8th, Reuters reported.
Non-U.S. air travelers will be required to show proof of vaccination before boarding a flight and proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test. For foreign visitors crossing into the U.S. at a land border, only proof of vaccination will be required.
Could New COVID Testing and Vaccine Mandates Make School Staffing Shortages in California Worse?
Some California school district superintendents, especially those in rural areas of the state, fear that teachers and other staff members will quit rather than be vaccinated or take weekly COVID tests — a state requirement that began Friday.
Many California districts are already struggling to staff schools, and even a moderate number of resignations would mean not only fewer teachers but fewer bus drivers, instructional aides and substitute teachers to keep schools running.
Tim Taylor, executive director of the Small School Districts’ Association, said superintendents have told him some of their employees have threatened to quit their jobs because of the mandates.
Protests Greet Debut of Italy’s Workplace COVID Pass Rule
Protests erupted in Italy as one of the most stringent anti-coronavirus measures in Europe went into effect Friday, requiring all workers, from magistrates to maids, to show a health pass to get into their place of employment.
Police were out in force, schools ended classes early and embassies issued warnings of possible violence amid concerns that the anti-vaccination demonstrations could turn violent, as they did in Rome last weekend.
Privacy Fears as Moscow Metro Rolls Out Facial Recognition Pay System
The Moscow metro has rolled out what authorities have lauded as the world’s first mass-scale facial recognition payment system, amid privacy concerns over the new technology.
The cashless, cardless and phoneless system, named Face Pay, launched at more than 240 stations across the Russian capital on Friday.
Texas Lawmakers Debate Bills Banning COVID Vaccine Requirements Two Days After Gov. Abbott’s Request
The rights of Texas employers are being pitted against Texas employees in Austin, and it’s putting lawmakers in “choppy waters,” according to Republican Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola.
“We might say we have a clash of rights,” Hughes said in a committee hearing debating Senate Bill 51.
Hughes is sponsoring the bill which would prohibit any government entity from requiring employees to get a COVID vaccine. The bill would also force any Texas business to allow its employees to opt out of getting vaccinated for any “reason of conscience.”
A Roadmap for Regaining Public Trust in the Tech Sector
Faith in the tech industry — the private sector’s unchallenged trust leader since at least 2000 — has declined for two years straight, even as tech adoption has accelerated. The steepest decline was in the United States, where tech went from being the most trusted industry to barely remaining in the top 10. The reasons why are varied and interconnected.
Ultimately, though, it comes down to the fact that technology is embedded in every aspect of our lives. As a result, tech companies are entrenched in very high-stakes personal and social issues, including climate change, human rights, privacy, anti-trust efforts and the spread of misinformation.
The decline in trust isn’t a problem companies can innovate their way out of. For the tech industry to regain the trust advantage, we must be willing to transform, letting go of long-held assumptions and embracing a new set of values and responsibilities.